À propos de l’œuvre
Le Pont de Waterloo, temps gris, par Claude Monet
Claude Monet · 1903 · Waterloo Bridge under an overcast sky
Waterloo Bridge, overcast weatherhand painted reproduction
The old bridge crosses a gray Thames while the industrial chimneys dissolve in the air: Monet makes overcast weather an architecture of blues, greens and diffused light.
Look at the work
The bridge measures the depth of a city almost absorbed by the atmosphere
From a room at the Savoy Hotel, Monet looks east and places the Waterloo Bridge in the middle of the canvas. Dark arches punctuate the surface of the river; above, buses, cabs and silhouettes are reduced to small colored touches which give a modern pulsation to the crossing.
On the south bank, chimneys and industrial buildings are still recognizable, but their sharpness decreases with distance. The sky, smoke and fog mingle without a clear dividing line. The city remains built, while appearing to be made of the same material as air.
The overcast weather does not remove the color: it forces Monet to look for it in the tiny gaps between the river, the stone, the smoke and the sky.
Composition, touch and light
What Monet builds behind the impression of snapshot
Three precise elements allow us to understand this composition and the essential difficulties of faithful reproduction.
A decisive horizontal band
The bridge cuts the canvas just below its middle. This stable line retains the composition while the water and the sky respond to each other with freer touches.
Traffic as punctuation
Small red, yellow, green and black notes enliven the apron. They are tiny, but prevent the monument from becoming immobile.
Chimneys without hard contours
The verticals of the south shore emerge through differences in value. The further they move away, the closer their blue-gray gets to that of the sky.
Details and visual documents
Observe the material and the exact version
The additional images show the difficult-to-read passages in the full view and, where it exists, the actual appearance of the work at the museum.
All three files are real WebPs. The full view reaches 1800 × 1159 px; details are cropped directly in this source, without artificial enlargement. Identification and dimensions are checked with Ordrupgaard.
Documented benchmarks
Three pieces of information specific to this work
These facts concern this precise version and are verified from the notice of the institution which keeps it.
The same pattern under changing conditions
Ordrupgaard links this work to the vast London series in which Monet covers Waterloo Bridge at different times and under different atmospheric phenomena.
Started in London, completed in Giverny
The notice specifies that Monet probably started the canvas in front of the motif in London before taking it up again over a long period in his workshop in Giverny.
A version kept at Ordrupgaard
This 1903 version, titled Waterloo Bridge, Overcast by the museum, measures 65.5 × 100.5 cm and bears the number 198 WH.
Your reproduction
What the painter must preserve
Fidelity here depends on precise relationships between light, touch, depth and color temperature.
- The regular rhythm of the arches without surrounding them
- The little colorful touches of traffic
- The degrees of blue gray between foreground and horizon
- Silver light present throughout the surface of the river
Work sheet
| Title | Waterloo Bridge, overcast weather |
|---|---|
| Artist | Claude Monet (1840 -1926) |
| Date | 1903 |
| Original technique | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 65.5 × 100.5 cm |
| Orientation | Horizontal |
| Conservation | Ordrupgaard, Charlottenlund, Denmark |
| Inventory | 198 WH |
| Your reproduction | Handmade oil painting on canvas |
Presentation in your interior
A palette designed with the room
Its bluish grays and muted greens create a calm presence, particularly suited to a living room, office or bedroom. A cream, greige or smoky blue wall naturally extends its atmosphere.
